Tesla Shatters Minds With Surprise Reveal Of Stupidly Fast Roadster

There’s such a thing as blowing the competition away and dropping the mic for good measure, and then there’s the move that Tesla just pulled at the highly anticipated reveal of its new semi truck. We’ll get to the semi soon enough, mind-blowing vehicle that it is, but first it’s important to touch on one of the most exciting products to come out of Elon Musk’s factories, Model S P100D be damned. We’re talking, of course, about the new Tesla Roadster.

Musk he’d mentioned that a new rendition of the car that touched off Tesla’s revolution would be making a splash sometime soon, but the fact it was unveiled as a surprise makes it that much better. Not like it needs help to achieve greatness. While it seats four, a removable roof and two doors ensures the EV can keep the “Roadster” moniker. Performance figures are absolutely mind-blowing. Think 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds and a top speed in excess of 250 mph. It already beats the Chiron to 60 mph and gets close to tapping its rear bumper on a top speed run, but Musk went as far as to say that the Roadster will be the fastest production car. Full stop.

If FCA was happy that the Challenger SRT Demon would stop those bullying P100Ds from stomping Hellcats in the quarter mile, well, we’ve got bad news for Dodge. Thanks to the Roadster’s 200 kWh battery pack, it’ll stampede through all 1,320 feet of drag strip from a standstill in just 8.8 seconds. Instead of using Ludicrous mode, Roadster owners will have access to “Plaid” mode, which is the only mode after “Ludicrous” mode in the Space Balls movie that Musk uses for his acceleration mode easter eggs. The Tesla CEO even had to reassure the audience that this was no practical joke. "These numbers sound unreal but they're not” he said at the unveiling party.

And while the updated exterior design, which look unmistakably Tesla and no longer resembles a modified Lotus, is enough to leave V12 lovers fawning, the Roaster’s practicality factor runs high thanks to a 620-mile range per charge and ample cargo capacity for grand touring rides across the country. Torque is another figure that runs into the stratosphere. Combined, the Roadster's three electric motors (one up front and two at the rear) churn out a total of 10,000 nm of torque, which translates to 7,375 lb-ft of torque. Take a second to process that. To Tesla, the point of those insane figures is to complete the transition society’s acceptance of the electric car, giving gasoline cars “the final smackdown” according to Musk.

For the performance, price isn’t terrible either. The base price of the Roadster runs at $200,000 with a $50,000 deposit needed to secure a reservation. That undercuts the price of supercars like the Lamborghini Aventador S and McLaren 720S, both of which lose to the Roadster on the drag strip. There’s also a Founders Series model, limited to just 1,000 units, that runs at $250,000. We won’t see the first production Roadsters on the road until 2020, but so long as Tesla can deliver these at a reasonable time, the new flagship should have what it takes to keep the Tesla craze going for quite a while.